Would it be possible to stand still on one spot more majestically - while simulating a triumphant march forward - than it is done by the two English Houses of Parliament?
American histories were the same; they had these mad ideas about how Parliament worked, or what people really meant when they said A, B, or C. All my life, I felt simultaneously deracinated and rooted in both places, and now it's my greatest strength: I'm culturally bilingual.
Before entering Parliament, I spent my career in the city and in business.
No law is permanent or steady. The law is not made of steel. The law is made by Parliament. It goes to the people, to the ground. A lot many suggestions come once it is implemented. So many laws have been amended after receiving people's suggestions.
I ended up in Parliament and soon discovered that emotion really doesn't have any place in politics. It's a much more intricate and complicated game, and I just didn't know how to play it.
When I was a youngster, I and people like us, who are educated and progressive-minded, did not take interest in politics. But then I realised that half of the parliament is being run by politicians with criminal records.
My Twitter feed is polluted with vitriolic personal abuse, much of it gendered. Like almost all female Members of Parliament, I have both seen and experienced inappropriate and sexist behaviour.
Parliament's centuries of history have been overwhelmingly dominated by men, but things are changing.
A century after some women first got the vote, we are upping the pressure for change to consign Parliament's legacy of inequality in the past.
Transparency will be at the heart of everything I do - it's what parliament expects, and it's what the public deserves.
